A heart prosthesis is already known, as described in European Pat. No. 0014130 for example, which comprises:
a pericardiac module comprising a housing which is divided into two chambers by a rigid partition, each of said chambers enclosing a pumping membrane which, together with the housing, delimits a blood pumping space representative of a ventricle of a natural heart to be replaced, and together with a partition delimits a control enclosure for a fluid for actuating the corresponding membrane; and
a control device comprising at least one generator of fluid for supplying said control enclosures and connected thereto via a connection including a first pipe and a second pipe.
Thus, in such a heart prosthesis, it is necessary to connect each of the control enclosures to the fluid generator in order to actuate each of said membranes, i.e. in order to simulate the operation of the left ventricle and of the right ventricle of a natural heart.
In such a prosthesis, it is clear that the fluid generator must be disposed outside the human body so the connection with the prosthesis has to pass through the skin.
In order to simplify the passage through the skin and the inherent problems of compatibility, sealing to the skin, risk of infection, etc. . . . , it is particularly advantageous for such a connection to be constituted by only one apparent tube.
Further, this connection must be capable of allowing each of the membranes in the prosthesis to be controlled independently.
The object of the present invention is to solve these difficulties and to provide a coupling system for such a connection.
Although the invention has been presented above in the context of the particular application of a heart prosthesis, the system of the invention may naturally be used whenever it is desired to put two contiguous enclosures disposed on the same side of a common wall into individual communication with the outside.